Action Note

In I-5-404 V. B., on page 8, last paragraph, sixth line, change “Office of Civil Actions (OCA)” to “Office of Appellate Operations (OAO).”

Background

On November 16, 1994, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) published a revised HALLEX Temporary Instruction (TI) 5-404 to implement the March 21, 1994 settlement order in Hyatt III. The TI delineates OHA component responsibilities, including the responsibilities of the Office of Civil Actions (OCA) and the Office of Appellate Operations (OAO), for such actions as processing alerts, screening and noticing potential class member cases and routing cases. On February 6, 1995, OAO assumed responsibility for the functions previously performed by the OCA operating divisions.

Part VI. D of the TI explains the four types of primary subclass claims to be given priority in processing. Language was inadvertently omitted from this part that explains assignment procedures for Hyatt cases (including any unfinished Hyatt II cases) that do not meet any of the priority handling criteria.

Explanation of Content and Changes

The change in OAO's functional responsibilities necessitates a change in the TI provisions with respect to component responsibilities for processing the Hyatt class action. The workload previously handled by OCA will now be processed by OAO through the OAO Class Action Coordinator. The action note and replacement pages provide the addresses for the receipt in OAO of the Hyatt alerts and the screening sheets and clarify that OAO, through the OAO Class Action Coordinator, is now responsible for certain class action processing functions formerly performed by OCA.

Regarding Hyatt claims that do not meet the criteria for priority handling, the Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge will assign them in order of:

• the receipt of the request for Hyatt review by SSA (for cases coming to OHA as the first level of review), or

• the receipt of the request for hearing (for cases on appeal following a DDS denial),

consistent with the usual assignment procedures.

Remove

Remove from 5-400, Court Cases:

Pages 9 through 12 of TI 5-404, dated November 16, 1994 (4 pages).

Pages 17 and 18 of TI 5-404, dated November 16, 1994 (2 pages).

Last page of Attachment 5 of TI 5-404, dated November 16, 1994 (1 page).

Insert

Insert in 5-400, Court Cases:

Pages 9 through 12-A of TI 5-404, dated October 20, 1995 (5 pages).

Pages 17, 18 and 18-A of TI 5-404, dated October 20, 1995 (3 pages).

Last page of Attachment 5 of TI 5-404, dated October 20, 1995 (1 page).

Date: October 20, 1995